Page 50 - david-copperfield

on the ground, with an iron funnel sticking out of it for a
chimney and smoking very cosily; but nothing else in the
way of a habitation that was visible to me.
‘That’s not it?’ said I. ‘That ship-looking thing?’
‘That’s it, Mas’r Davy,’ returned Ham.
If it had been Aladdin’s palace, roc’s egg and all, I sup-
pose I could not have been more charmed with the romantic
idea of living in it. There was a delightful door cut in the
side, and it was roofed in, and there were little windows in
it; but the wonderful charm of it was, that it was a real boat
which had no doubt been upon the water hundreds of times,
and which had never been intended to be lived in, on dry
land. That was the captivation of it to me. If it had ever been
meant to be lived in, I might have thought it small, or incon-
venient, or lonely; but never having been designed for any
such use, it became a perfect abode.
It was beautifully clean inside, and as tidy as possible.
There was a table, and a Dutch clock, and a chest of draw-
ers, and on the chest of drawers there was a tea-tray with a
painting on it of a lady with a parasol, taking a walk with a
military-looking child who was trundling a hoop. The tray
was kept from tumbling down, by a bible; and the tray, if
it had tumbled down, would have smashed a quantity of
cups and saucers and a teapot that were grouped around
the book. On the walls there were some common coloured
pictures, framed and glazed, of scripture subjects; such as I
have never seen since in the hands of pedlars, without see-
ing the whole interior of Peggotty’s brother’s house again,
at one view. Abraham in red going to sacrifice Isaac in blue,